We moved to a charming ‘80s house a few months ago and I can’t tell you how many friends I have asked, those who moved, and those who have moved again and again, how long it took them to unbox everything, discard from the old and finally settle. Change and movement, I understand, is a good part to achieve our purpose or intention to get into the next part of our lives as a family.  It takes time, I was told, like everything else, before one can put one’s feet up on an easy chair and say, “Ah, there!”

I must admit, though, that Honey and I do that almost every day, “Ah, there,” we say, and then we get up and move a chair here, add a plant there. Yesterday, I opened a box – one of 2 — that’s been blocking the cookbook shelf of my kitchen island.  When I removed the old newspapers, I found the set of china my mother in law gave me many years ago.  My in-laws moved homes when their children, one by one, moved out to start their own families.  So, MIL boxed her stuff and gave me a set of ironstone china she bought in Spain in the 70s. PONTESA dinner, bread and butter plates, soup bowls with matching soup tureen, tea cups and saucers – a whole set.  Pretty orange and green.  Nothing like ironstone china. And nothing like something that has a little history.

Unfortunately, and expectedly, there were cracks and chips on some of the pieces. Cracks and chips which are all part of my honey’s history before we were married. Can’t throw away, and won’t.  Instead, I had my gardener, who was here today, repot some baby plants, using some of the chipped and weathered looking ones.  Re-purpose, that’s what I did.  I think Honey will like it.